1. Hom. uses the open or the closed forms according to convenience. -ευς occurs in the gen. of a few words in -ος (βέλευς); -εων is often a monosyllable ( cross60), as is the accus. sing. and pl. -εα from nom. -ης or -ος. Hdt. has open -εος, -εα, -εες (?), -εα. In the dat. pl. Hom. has βέλεσσι, βέλεσι, and βελέεσσι ( cross250 D. 2) from βέλοςmissile.

2. Stems in ας are generally uncontracted in Hom. (γήραος, γήραϊ), but we find -αι in the dat. sing., κρεῶν and κρειῶν in the gen. pl. In the nom. and acc. pl. α is short (γέρα), and this is sometimes the case even in Attic poetry (κρέα). The explanation is obscure (γέρα does not stand for γέρα'). Hom. has δέπασσι and δεπάεσσι (δέπαςcup).